Audio:

I spent the last four days in airports and also the Indianapolis Convention Center for a Magic: The Gathering tournament; well, series of Magic tournaments.

While I played in four, I - we really - won only one:

Won the team side event at #scgindy Can you think of anything better to spend my prize tickets on? pic.twitter.com/Icrrszr3j4

— Michael Flores (@fivewithflores) March 20, 2022

... But a ton of interesting things came up, for Red Decks in three different formats. Somehow literally all of them will be valuable reading for those interested in Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano, Lava Spike, or even non-Red Red Deck associate, Path to Exile.

1. Den of the Bugbear and Kumano Faces Kakkazan in Formats Various

Anyone reading this column for the past year or so probably knows that I am perhaps the biggest fan - but certainly biggest proponent - of the YouTube streamer Also Known As CovertGoBlue.

After interacting quite a bit on Twitter and YouTube, plus jealously sharing my apprentices and barnacles in locations exotic, I finally got to meet CGB this past weekend. I repeated (to him) something that I had announced to multiple Zoomers before that point on Friday morning: I would literally rather watch - or even re-watch - the newest CGB video than almost anything on Netflix.

That said, I struggled to be able to articulate to anyone actually why. The easiest explanation is that most streamers are not very good or very entertaining. Or that some are very good but have terrible, unwatchable, production values; and that potentially entertaining ones put me off for being either dimwits about their own execution or mean-spirited in defeat.

The contrast of why most others aren't good enough is itself not good enough, and it doesn't properly explain what makes CGB actively special, not in a competitive landscape that is increasingly moving to video content, in the abstract. Luckily in the inn that night I watched what was then his most recent video, which I think best explains what makes his content so off the wall. I'll link it here:

The salient part is during his explanation of how the Boros Standard deck works. First of all, he takes the time to talk about the simple bits. What's different, and why might you want to play it? There are things that are obvious - or at least seem obvious - like that Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano is a weird, if contextually backbreaking, splash for an otherwise White creature deck. Normally you'd see a White deck splash a three or four mana play like Angelfire Ignition, Showdown of the Skalds, or flexible removal... Not a 1-drop.

And then he gives you the secret sauce. This deck does't actually splash Kumano Faces Kakkazan. Here is the quote:

The ability to crystallize a complicated topic, and simplify its meaningful germ for a broad audience without diluting its essential truth or value is one of the rarest and most desirable skills in any communicator. It is said that the last man who understood all the technology he used on an everyday basis was Leonardo Da Vinci. I certainly don't understand the operating system of my iPhone. My longtime collaborator Patrick Chapin would certainly giggle that the average Modern player does not understand the operating system of their Red Deck. But for anyone who cares, anyone actually paying attention, CGB here gives them not only the keys to the Boros car, but the blueprint to its shiny new Tesla engine.

That one statement then becomes the easiest example of Also Known As Dan's excellence that I can easily summon up. "Splashing for Den of the Bugbear" is such a profound macro idea. Den is only good-good on the first couple of turns. Once you get there - start there - Kumano Faces Kakkazan as a first-turn splash isn't even a difficult concept! The follow-up question is answered before you even think to ask it. And you know what? CGB does it over and over and over. Good stuff; even if his initials should properly be CGU.

So, anyway, my team, which will henceforth be known as Hot Dog State University, played (but did not win) the Friday Team Trial we entered. I afterward instructed my teammates that we would NOT be playing Izzet Phoenix in Pioneer. It was no fault of our pilot Patrick O'Halloran-Gannon. The g-d deck seemed both incapable of keeping pace with the format's proactive creature decks and incapable of dealing with Azorius Control's sideboard cards. If it's bad against both ends of the metagame, what exactly do you want to play against?

Things I know: Pieces of the Puzzle is nigh unplayable. Two different cards in the deck are nigh uncastable. This is the worst Galvanic Iteration deck I have ever seen; or at least the nigh-worst.

Things I don't know: What in the almighty eff Phoenix can beat.

This left us with the Herculean task of assembling an alternate Pioneer deck before Saturday's main event. I cannot believe I was reduced to begging on #KiblerGoogle for in-print commons and uncommons, but at the point that we found a play set of Ramunap Ruins in some nameless dealer's bulk uncommons box, I knew we had to switch to the One True Strategy.

Luckily, we were able to get a ton of the important cards like Cemetery Gatekeeper and Chandra, Dressed to Kill at the - you guessed it - CoolStuffInc booth! And despite Patrick making fun of my box of Every Playable Red Card I Could Conceivably Think of Playing on the plane ride over... He wasn't laughing any more when I was able to produce such key Modern alteranates as Soul-Scar Mage, Light Up the Stage, and Chandra, Torch of Defiance stress-free.

... We probably should have played Goblin Chainwhirler! Just saying.

So, we scrubbed out of the main event, but the whole morning I was feeling round over round jealousy watching Patrick cast Kumano Faces Kakkazan and attack with Den of the Bugbear for four. So, when we dropped out to play in a consolation team event that afternoon, he graciously let me switch into the Pioneer seat.

We played the great SandyDogMTG's 4-0 list. Well actually, we didn't. 59/60. 74/75. One Wild Slash ended up being a Shock. Because even I didn't bring a set of Wild Slash.

Mono-Red Aggro | Pioneer | sandydogmtg

• Creatures (16)
• 4 Bonecrusher Giant
• 4 Eidolon of the Great Revel
• 4 Monastery Swiftspear
• 4 Soul-Scar Mage

• Planeswalkers (4)
• 4 Chandra, Dressed to Kill

• Instants (8)
• 2 Wild Slash
• 2 Spikefield Hazard // Spikefield Cave
• 4 Play with Fire

• Sorceries (8)
• 4 Light Up the Stage
• 4 Skewer the Critics

• Enchantments (4)
• 4 Kumano Faces Kakkazan // Etching of Kumano

• Lands (20)
• 11 Mountain
• 1 Sokenzan, Crucible of Defiance
• 4 Den of the Bugbear
• 4 Ramunap Ruins

• Sideboard (15)
• 3 Cemetery Gatekeeper
• 3 Chandra, Torch of Defiance
• 4 Lava Coil
• 1 Mutavault
• 4 Roiling Vortex

Buy This Deck Export text format

I don't know who can affect the universe who is also reading this. Whatever you have to do so I can play Pioneer, please do it. Local NYC store owners and tournament organizers? Please make Pioneer events. I will play the eff out of your Pioneer FNM. My old friend Huey Jensen nine days from now? Please wave your Magic: The Gathering wand. Limited is fine but I want to remove a land from the opponent's graveyard and attack with a 3/2 Cemetery Gatekeeper.

This deck is an absolute joy to play.

I had never touched physical copies of some of the cards before, such as Chandra, Dressed to Kill, but I found their exploration wildly rewarding. Certain "automatic" sequences from Red Deck play patterns past require at the very least a second look. Like, usually you lead on Monastery Swiftspear or Soul-Scar Mage on turn one, right? And then play your potential Prowess spell? But sometimes Kumano Faces Kakkazan is the right first turn play. Getting an additional toughness on your turn-two creature might be essential. But then again, sometimes you just want a super cheap way to trigger Skewer the Critics and Light Up the Stage on a multi-spell middle turn.

When I predicted Play with Fire would be the most significant Constructed card from Innistrad: Crimson Vow, I had no idea how elegant an upgrade to good old Shock it would prove in Pioneer. In one match, a manascrewed Patrick deuced the opponent on upkeep to find an essential Mountain and line up the Skewer the Critics spectacle for what would have been an unstoppable Werewolf Pack Leader. In a key sideboard game, my opponent looked on in shock and awe as I killed him at Mach One through his Leyline of Sanctity.

I targeted myself to not only give my team prowess triggers but find the land I needed to complete an insane sequence where Bonecrusher Giant had just Stomped my own Soul-Scar Mage. The amazing Kumano Faces Kakkazan strikes just fine through Leyline, BTW.

Legacy seat AND MTG VEGAS TOP 8 COMPETITOR Etai Kurtzman was an absolute rock on Izzet Murktide, and we were able to win the consolation event. We collectively used our thousands of prize wall tickets to buy classic 1/1 Mike Flores tokens, because really: Who needs more sealed product?

2. How to Play a Lava Spike (or, "Attacking Companions")

Burn matches don't go very long on the clock, so Patrick and I spent a lot of our in-between-rounds down time just jamming Modern Boros against each other. In one game he opened with Sacred Foundry (18) into first-turn Lava Spike.

I once wrote an article here on CoolStuffInc about how you would win more in Modern just by playing Lava Spike, because it is almost impossible to mis-play it. One of the very few ways you can screw up this most wonderful of rudders on the battleship of Modern Magic is to play Lava Spike on the first turn; especially in the dark... But when you know the opponent is Boros? You don't want to take two for no reason.

I remember watching a young Roman Fusco playing on Day Two of an Invitational. It was turn one and he didn't have anything better to do with his land drop, so he just Spiked his unknown opponent and passed.

He knew I was watching, and shuddered in his seat a second later knowing what was to come.

"Immediately after I did it," he would tell me afterward, "I knew he was going to be Grixis Death's Shadow. Because Justice."

Because Justice, indeed.

In the fun game against me, I thought it would be better for Patrick to wind it backwards and assured him that at some point in the game he would have a single free mana; and probably a prowess trigger to boot. But more than that, there are strategic reasons you wouldn't want to do this. The simplest is that you might just need one mana to catalyze Skewer the Critics later! But like most general rules in Magic, there are exceptions. In fact, there was a time in the main tournament that I made the exact same play I chided Patrick for. In the "dark".

Why?

My opponent revealed this Companion pre-game:

I made the immediate assumption that a Kaheera-revealing opponent was on some kind of Azorius Control variant. And more than that, that I might be facing a Chalice of the Void as early as turn two.

So, I made the Spike play - with Sacred Foundry no less - and four turns later my opponent was complaining about how the turn two Chalice had gotten no money all game. If you know your opponent is a creature-poor Control, you don't need to play tricky. In fact, if they get their game plan (which might include something like Teferi, Time Raveler) you can't even play tricky. Your only advantage in the face of their wildly more powerful answers and gaudy Modern Horizons II rares and mythic rares is that their answers are slower than your proactive packets of damage, so one potentially winning line is to deploy them as fast as possible by tapping all your mana without fail. Between their pitch spells and breakers, foregoing even one tap might get you caught by permission later, when you needed literally every card to win.

There is one other interesting first turn Companion story I had on the weekend.

This was my opening hand:

• Bloodstained Mire
• Scalding Tarn
• Lightning Bolt
• Lightning Bolt
• Rift Bolt
• Skewer the Critics
• Lightning Helix

This hand is utterly medium in a lot of matchups. Even in informed games you would willingly keep, it has no direct path to actually win. I like to joke when players over-value face-only burn spells like Boros Charm that they're just making the opponent win on 16 rather than on 20. This hand can do 15, if and even then, only if the opponent doesn't do something to stop it. No permission; no life gain; no creature you have to divert face-burn at just to stay alive. It has no 1-drop, no initiative, and no way to control the tempo of the game... unless the opponent actively cooperates.

But I was on the play.

And my opponent revealed this Companion:

If the opponent is on Jegantha, my assumption is that they're Grixis Death's Shadow.

That's where tight deck-building comes in.

Look at the opener's fetch lands.

I have railed for years that Boros players should under no circumstances play the card Arid Mesa. It puts opponents on alert from the go in a way that the Grixis fetches don't. I was on the play, and I laid down Scalding Tarn.

What happened next?

The opponent paid for a Steam Vents, into Dragon's Rage Channeler.

That's 18.

Turn two I played Bloodstained Mire and passed.

The opponent fetched again, this time for three (!!!) before casting Thoughtseize off his Watery Grave.

That's 13.

Despite losing my Lightning Helix, my hand is looking awfully good now.

It was close, but I got there through double Dragon's Rage Channeler and a Drown in the Loch to cover.

This victory came primarily for one reason:

It doesn't come up super often, but if you can line up a Scalding Tarn for a little trickery instead of an Arid Mesa - barring scouting or reputation, I guess - you can probably pick up a free win every tournament or two. This was perhaps my most satisfying victory on an otherwise unremarkable weekend, results-wise that is.

3. Using Deck Density to Craft Your Game Plan

After an unsuccessful round against Spirits, Patrick and I discussed his sideboarding. This conversation ended up a jaw-dropping hit amongst passers-by so I thought I'd share it here to finish. Basically, he had left in Boros Charm but not sided in Path to Exile.

I would have sided in Path to Exile. The way I try to sideboard, I don't consider face-only burn cards high priority in small creature matchups. They remain good finishers when you're way ahead, but are blank cards if you're behind. Unless you play Skullcrack (which is often bad even in the matchups where you theoretically want it) Boros Charm tends to be the weakest card; and therefore one you want to side out. You can occasionally catch someone with indestructible, but not usually Spirits or other creature decks. You win almost every game you get Indestructible on an Eidolon of the Great Revel versus Grixis Death's Shadow or sweeper decks like the Azorius variants; but it barely comes up where both players are going wide but the opponent's creatures are better at combat.

Rather, there are two things you want to do:

1. Reduce your casting costs as much as possible.
2. Increase the density of your deck relative to the density of their deck.

What do we mean by "density" in this context?

I asked this question:

"How many lands do you think your opponent is playing?"

He estimated 23.

"And he has Aether Vial?"

That means that - assuming every card in the enemy's deck besides land and Aether Vial is either a creature or can trade for a creature (which is something creatures themselves do) - he has a density of 33/60. Call it 55%.

Very few configurations can side everything out, but the list we were playing can get rid of a lot. I would have sided out six total Boros Charms and Lava Spikes for four Searing Blood and two Path to Exile. If I had had one Kor Firewalker or Sanctifier en-Vec instead of the one-of Skullcrack (I know, I know) I would have considered siding it in. Can it trade with a Rattlechains in combat? Can I make him put a Rattlechains in front of it by controlling the tempo of the game? Good enough.

We only have two cards left in our deck that are not "dense" from the perspective of being able to either be a creature or trade with a creature. We are 38/60. If we both draw one card per turn, both go to libraries, the very nature of our deck is that we essentially draw five more cards than the opponent. But we also have Sunbaked Canyon. That means that if we go to libraries it's more like 38/56! In a fair game, if we can get them to trade-one-for one, we are going to be ahead.

The trick is that they have cards like Rattlechains and Spell Queller, which can limit our ability to do that. Except! Our stuff is largely cheap one-mana spells. We are drawing more of them and can deploy them strategically in a way that limits the opponent's ability to gain value from their more advantageous (but also more expensive) Spirits. They just don't have enough mana to get value on us if we're actively controlling tempo and lowering our mana costs.

But we did add four two-mana spells, while leaving in several more! Remember: our two-mana spells are far more than "even" one-for-ones even assuming the density argument. I lost a match at the Pro Tour once because I sided my Eidolon of the Great Revel out against Spirits. It was wrong, I was awful, and my opponent graciously instructed me how to play better in the GP the next day; where Eidolon devoured three Spirits opponents on the way to a money finish.

Our other two-mana spells are ferocious. Searing Blaze, Searing Blood, and Lightning Helix not only break the card-for-card density paradigm where we already have a strict cardboard advantage, they might just murder Spell Queller, whose third toughness is perhaps more relevant than its 187 feature in this matchup.

Does this always work out? Of course not. Nothing "always" works out. They can get to five mana unscathed and double spell you with two-for-one hexproof Lords at instant speed every turn while you're stuck on a dismal pair of Sunbaked Canyons. But if you have the right mindset - and tool set - two things will happen. First, you will draw blanks at a remarkably lower rate over time; your plans therefore will become more coherent and your topdecks will get better in long games because the structure of your deck - and how you got to the game state you're navigating - will both be so much more predictable. Secondly, you will be able to approach a game that feels inevitable and even inescapable from the opponent's perspective. Much, and even most, of the time! If you're really lucky, they will draw blanks at a greater rate; having, perhaps, missed the memo on deck density.

LOVE

MIKE